Golf participation soars and Asian markets lead the way, ahead of AGTC 2025
New research by the R&A shows that the number of people playing golf has increased by a staggering 44% since 2016, with 3.1 million new golfers in 2023, making the rate of growth even higher than the pandemic period.
Golf tourism relies of course on golf participation and on people playing golf regularly, so this is excellent news for the future health and sustainability of the golf tourism industry.
This data comes from R&A affiliated markets (outside of the USA and Mexico). The top five countries by adult golfer population are Japan (11.4 million), Republic of Korea (8.7 million), Canada (6.3 million), England (4.2 million) and Germany (2.4 million).
Asia is the leading region with total adult engagement in golf of 26.2 million. Europe is next highest with 19.7 million adults having some form of golf engagement.
Credit; IAGTO